An ACOLYTE is any member of the CHURCH intending to become an INITIATE, the title for someone trained in one of the 7 Clerical Arts. It takes a year of dedicated study under a High INITIATE mentor to consider oneself proficient in a given Art. One can be granted the title of High INITIATE after successfully practicing their Art for 13 more years. There are six types of INITIATE, from First Circle to Sixth Circle. Each Art you have studied raises you a Circle. (For example, a High Third Circle INITIATE has mentored in 3 arts, and has practiced at least one for 13 years.) There is no such thing as a Seventh Circle INITIATE, as 7 is the forbidden number; such a position is held by a HIEROPHANT, of which there are only ever 3. Below are short descriptions of each Art, and the title one receives upon having completed their mentorship.
ACOLYTE [Make the world better] d6. Institutional protectorate (assaulting an acolyte is a heretical offense).
INITIATE [Serve the CHURCH] d8. Institutional protectorate, unshakeable will (mental state cannot be magically swayed), Art practitioner (see italics below).
(Pb now has a minimalist stat format! NAME [Impulse] VD. Special abilities. SOMA is twice the max value of the VD, WD are listed next to any abilities that use them. That new terminology will make sense when I publish the next version of NEW AGE.)
A Cantor practices Binding. This is the easiest Art to study, and generally the first that the average ACOLYTE pursues, as it’s oriented around ceremonies whose intricacies are tedious but not complex. The three primary ceremonies of Binding are the Mystery (in which the CHURCH recognizes and sanctions the promotion of a clergymember), the Wedding (in which the CHURCH recognizes and sanctions the crystallization of a romance), and the Indictment (in which the CHURCH recognizes and sanctions a declaration of heresy). A Cantor can freely change anyone’s emotional state by speaking to them for a minute, or by touching them for a High Cantor.
Many who learn the vulgar rites graduate to learn rituals yet graver.
A Celebrant practices Internment. The Celebrant deals with the dead, officiating funerals and executions with equal gravity and vindictive zeal. Children who rip small animals limb from limb and snap their bones inside their flesh are often introduced to their local Celebrant in the hopes of a future apprenticeship. A Celebrant’s touch takes up to a year off of your life, or up to a decade for a High Celebrant.*
Those who must deal with heresy’s aftermath often seek preventative approaches.
An Abjurer practices Abjuration (called Apotropaia when practiced by a heretic). When holy ground must be consecrated or spirits from beyond must be exorcized, these tight-lipped, cerulean-clad nomads slip in, work their artifice, and silently vanish as mysteriously as they first came. Hunting down a High Abjurer mentor is part of an ACOLYTE’S training. An Abjurer’s glare quells magic, and paralyzes for a High Abjurer.
When salt and script fail, often steel and sinew succeed.
A Bulwark practices Crusade. Crusade is the only act of CHURCH-sanctioned violence, and is to be exerted only against heretics and existential threats to the CHURCH and its holdings, at least on paper. Bulwarks traditionally use blood-polished shillelaghs grown in an ankh shape; part of their training is to find a suitable staff and crack enough skulls with it to get a good claret stain. Bulwarks have a d10 VD, or a d12 for a High Bulwark.
The old wisdom is to avoid breaking what you cannot mend.
A Chaplain practices Healing. Is their miraculous artifice the result of divine providence or the cutting edge of learning? None can be sure, but none can argue its near-preternatural efficacy. However, the CHURCH does not practice mercy-killing; many cripples in its care commit heinous sins just so they may be finally made free from agony’s shackles at a Celebrant’s hands. Chaplains can replenish 1 SOMA through their touch, or WD (d6) for a High Chaplain.
Those who suffer supplicate to their superiors so they may soothe their spirits.
An Augur practices Augury (called Divination outside of INITIATE practice). The means by which an Augur tells the future is a sort of regional dialect; be it by animal entrails, rune stones, cards, or cloud formations, be it under the star-speckled sky or deep within the earth, be it to conjure the whispers of the dead, visions from beyond, or metered glossolalia. Through these nuances, a knowledgeable Augur can watch another’s technique and know who their mentor was mentored by, and so on all the way back to the first practitioners of the Art. With an hour’s ritual and an appropriate sacrifice, an Augur receives a divine answer to a binary question, or an open-ended question for a High Augur.
Those who know history are doomed to see it repeated.
A Counselor practices Cataloguing. The duties of a Counselor are eclectic, including overseeing confessionals and musically accompanying services, but their first is as the CHURCH’s living library. Their training involves memorizing large swathes of the Codex Periodicum word for word, and reading countless other folk fables and historical treatises to boot. It is for this reason that ex-Counselors, of which there are disproportionately many, are considered among the most dangerous heretics. With a glance, a Counselor knows everything you’ve done in the past day, or in the past year for a High Counselor.
*If you need a character’s expected lifespan in a pinch, 10+4d20 feels right to me for a medievalish setting.
(DESIGN NOTES: The strength of this design is that temperament = title = stats. For example, take a Second Circle INITIATE in Internment and Crusade. Not only does that diegetic title alone inform a complete stat block, it tells us a few things about their personality and background as a character. We can guess that they’re young, given they’re not a High INITIATE, and that they likely have a sadistic streak. This means that you the DM can encode a lot of information that might be expressed in redundant ways very succinctly, freeing physical and mental space for more interesting prep, and the players can access it through color heraldry and NPCs being addressed by their titles.)
Pb NEW AGE revision coming as soon as I have to get it finished in order to get this new game up and running. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.
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